Escaping Club

In 1917, the German Empire declared its most notorious POW camp escape-proof. A. J. Evans proved them spectacularly wrong. Escaping Club chronicles Evans' harrowing flight from a supposedly impenetrable German prison to neutral Switzerland, crossing enemy territory with nothing but nerve and ingenuity. After repatriation and returning to the fight, Evans finds himself captured once more, this time by Arab forces, then Turks, and escapes again. This is not merely an adventure story but a vivid, intimate portrait of what Allied prisoners endured: the brutal camp conditions, the constant threat of recapture, the ingenuity required to outwit guards. Evans writes with the kind of dry British humor that makes even the most desperate moments feel impossibly civilized. A century later, his account remains the definitive word on WWI prisoner-of-war experience and the particular breed of man who simply refused to stay behind bars.